Google Kubernetes lead Chen Goldberg discusses the power of containers and the open-source community

Before you read about why Chen Goldberg is excited to get to work every day, some background: Chen is an engineering director, heading up Google Container Engine (GKE) and the Kubernetes project. We think Kubernetes is one of the most exciting projects in Cloud and, as cool as the technology is, the best part is that it’s open-source, bringing a production-ready container orchestration system to everyone who’s interested.

Kubernetes is a platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and operations of containers (individual units of host resources that use OS-level virtualization to run applications, rather than hardware virtualization). By automating this process, users are able to react to customer demand much more quickly and efficiently. Kubernetes also powers GKE on the Google Cloud Platform, providing a hosted experience for users. Read on to learn more about Chen, the work, and the community that inspires her.

What do you think is unique about working on Cloud at Google?
It may sound cliché, but one of the really unique things about Google is the people who work here. When I was interviewing for this job, I was so impressed by my interviewers. All of them were extremely intelligent, talented, and nice. Beyond that, I could tell that they were truly passionate about Cloud and open-source technology. As I met each of them, I kept on thinking, “I want to work with these people.” And I still feel that way!

On top of that, Google seriously cares about open-source—we’re not faking it. We fully believe that this is the best way for us to innovate and develop incredible technology that’s accessible and beneficial to everyone.

Plus, we don’t think of open-source as a one-way flow of information. Instead, we’re always engaging with the community, and we don’t hold anything back. There aren't any secrets that we’re keeping to ourselves. In fact, to use Kubernetes as an example, I know of many companies currently using our platform in production, based only off of the open-source project. That’s how advanced the platform is. To me, that’s absolutely amazing, because by being so collaborative and open, we’re helping progress the industry as a whole.

This is a new technology that has the potential to vastly improve the speed with which users can run and change their applications at scale.

What exciting opportunities are on the horizon for you and your team?
The first big opportunity for our team is increasing the adoption of containers and containers orchestration. This is a new technology that has the potential to vastly improve the speed with which users can run and change their applications at scale. We believe it’s a truly revolutionary platform, but we know that’s not enough; we have to help users adopt this technology on their own terms. To accomplish that, we’ve been talking to all sorts of people—our open-source partners, CTOs at various companies, developers—so that we can constantly improve the platform and fill the wide array of needs and use cases that our users have.

The second exciting challenge for my team going forward is coordinating with our open-source partners. Currently, we have almost 900 committers on Github, who work alongside us to develop, hack, and improve the platform. With a community of that size, one of our top priorities is making sure that the velocity of the whole community stays up, and that all 900 people have the right tools and processes to be successful. Most importantly, we want to ensure that the community is a fun place, where people can speak their minds, have fruitful discussions, and share the responsibilities of leadership. As difficult as that can be at times, it’s very rewarding to be a part of such a collaborative and creative group of committers. Pretty much every day I leave work inspired.

To learn more about Kubernetes, check out the project site. If you’re interested in hacking on the core Kubernetes code base, head over to the Github project page.

Software Engineer

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Google Kubernetes lead Chen Goldberg discusses the power of containers and the open-source community

Before you read about why Chen Goldberg is excited to get to work every day, some background: Chen is an engineering director, heading up Google Container Engine (GKE) and the Kubernetes project. We think Kubernetes is one of the most exciting projects in Cloud and, as cool as the technology is, the best part is that it’s open-source, bringing a production-ready container orchestration system to everyone who’s interested.

Kubernetes is a platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and operations of containers (individual units of host resources that use OS-level virtualization to run applications, rather than hardware virtualization). By automating this process, users are able to react to customer demand much more quickly and efficiently. Kubernetes also powers GKE on the Google Cloud Platform, providing a hosted experience for users. Read on to learn more about Chen, the work, and the community that inspires her.

What do you think is unique about working on Cloud at Google?
It may sound cliché, but one of the really unique things about Google is the people who work here. When I was interviewing for this job, I was so impressed by my interviewers. All of them were extremely intelligent, talented, and nice. Beyond that, I could tell that they were truly passionate about Cloud and open-source technology. As I met each of them, I kept on thinking, “I want to work with these people.” And I still feel that way!

On top of that, Google seriously cares about open-source—we’re not faking it. We fully believe that this is the best way for us to innovate and develop incredible technology that’s accessible and beneficial to everyone.

Plus, we don’t think of open-source as a one-way flow of information. Instead, we’re always engaging with the community, and we don’t hold anything back. There aren't any secrets that we’re keeping to ourselves. In fact, to use Kubernetes as an example, I know of many companies currently using our platform in production, based only off of the open-source project. That’s how advanced the platform is. To me, that’s absolutely amazing, because by being so collaborative and open, we’re helping progress the industry as a whole.

This is a new technology that has the potential to vastly improve the speed with which users can run and change their applications at scale.

What exciting opportunities are on the horizon for you and your team?
The first big opportunity for our team is increasing the adoption of containers and containers orchestration. This is a new technology that has the potential to vastly improve the speed with which users can run and change their applications at scale. We believe it’s a truly revolutionary platform, but we know that’s not enough; we have to help users adopt this technology on their own terms. To accomplish that, we’ve been talking to all sorts of people—our open-source partners, CTOs at various companies, developers—so that we can constantly improve the platform and fill the wide array of needs and use cases that our users have.

The second exciting challenge for my team going forward is coordinating with our open-source partners. Currently, we have almost 900 committers on Github, who work alongside us to develop, hack, and improve the platform. With a community of that size, one of our top priorities is making sure that the velocity of the whole community stays up, and that all 900 people have the right tools and processes to be successful. Most importantly, we want to ensure that the community is a fun place, where people can speak their minds, have fruitful discussions, and share the responsibilities of leadership. As difficult as that can be at times, it’s very rewarding to be a part of such a collaborative and creative group of committers. Pretty much every day I leave work inspired.

To learn more about Kubernetes, check out the project site. If you’re interested in hacking on the core Kubernetes code base, head over to the Github project page.

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